Canada
CAN |Continent = North America |Leader = Stephen Harper (Prime Minister) |Population = 31,612,897 (as of 2006) |Registered players = 545,363 |Percentage = 1,76% |National team = Team Canada |National federation = Hockey Canada |IIHF ranking = 1st (+1) |Top league = National Hockey League (NHL) |Champion = Montreal Canadiens* |}} Canada is an North American country, bordered by the United-States. It's capital is Ottawa, Ontario and there are a little over 32.7 million inhabitants. Organisation Hockey is hugely popular in Canada, to the point of having been named the official national sport. Currently, the top league in the country is the National Hockey League (a league established in both Canada and the United States. Despite the immense popularity of the sport in the country and the large number of top-level pro players, paradoxally, professional hockey is not very developped. The NHL only has 6 canadian teams out of its 30 members; the country has other teams in minor North American professional leagues, but there too, they are under-represented comparatively to the U.S.-based teams. The lack of large enough cities and potential investors, along with the high level of taxation in Canada are usually regarded as the main causes of the situation. The country, however, has some very strong semi-professional and amateur leagues. Ice hockey in the country is governed by Hockey Canada. History of hockey in Canada The early years Ice hockey appeared in Canada early in the 1800s. The original game was pretty much adaptation to European sports of hurley, shinty or field hockey to the winter conditions of the new home of Irish, Scottish and English settlers, respectively. In 1825, Sir John Franklin wrote that "The game of hockey played on the ice was the morning sport" while on Great Bear Lake during one of his Arctic expeditions. In 1843, a British Army officer in Kingston, Ontario, wrote "Began to skate this year, improved quickly and had great fun at hockey on the ice." A Boston Evening Gazette article from 1859 makes reference to an early game of hockey on ice occurring in Halifax in that year. Games in Kingston and Halifax are the earliest recorded hockey games. While both Kingston and Windsor, Nova Scotia have been claimed by individuals at one point or another as the birthplace of hockey, Montreal is usually acknowledged as the birthplace of modern ice hockey. On March 3rd 1875, a group of students of McGill University in Montreal played the first organized indoor game at the Victoria Skating Rink. This is the earliest eyewitness account known of a specific game of hockey in a specific place at a specific time, and with a recorded score, between two identified teams. Two years later, several McGill students, including James George Aylwin Creighton, Henry Joseph, Richard F. Smith, W.F. Robertson, and W.L. Murray codified seven ice hockey rules. The sport quickly gained in popularity and official hockey clubs began to appear. The first was the McGill University Hockey Club in 1877; in 1881, the Montreal Victorias were founded. The sport was featured in Montreal's annual Winter Carnival from 1883; McGill won the first "Carnival Cup". In 1886, the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada was founded as a league for the teams that took part in the carnivals. I eat POO Amateur hockey In 1888, Lord Stanley of Preston, the new Governor General of Canada, attended the Montreal Winter Carnival and watched hockey games. He was impressed by what he saw on the ice, and his sons and daughter became hockey enthusiasts. Four years later, after noting the lack of recognition for the best club in the country, he purchased for a reported ten guineas a decorative bowl to silversmiths from Sheffield intended as a trophy. The bowl, initially known as The Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup and more famously later as the Stanley Cup, was first awarded in 1893 to the Montreal HC. If it was originally intended as a challenge cup for champions of various leagues across the country, it became the de facto championship trophy of the National Hockey League in 1926, and de jure in 1947. Professional hockey In 1904, International Professional Hockey League(IPHL) was formed in the United States. That league boasted the first professional team from Canada, the Canadian Soo. The league hired amateur players from Canada ; that forced canadians to move from amateurism to professionalism as well, in order to keep their top players in the country. The Manitoba Professional Hockey League holds the distinction of being the first league to go professional in the country, in 1905; that league was essentially made out of the teams of the amateur Manitoba Hockey Association. The National Hockey Association, precursor of the National Hockey League, was founded in 1910. International On the international level, Canada is very competitive, continuously ranked in the elite of the world and part of the Big Seven. Olympics *1920 Gold *1924 Gold *1928 Gold *1932 Gold *1936 Silver *1948 Gold *1952 Gold *1956 Bronze *1960 Silver *1964 Fourth *1968 Bronze *1972 Did not take part *1976 Did not take part *1980 Sixth *1984 Fourth *1988 Fourth *1992 Silver *1994 Silver *1998 Fourth *2002 Gold *2006 Seventh *2010 Gold Some great Canadian players A very large number of very great talent have come from Canada through the years; they have, at every moment of the history of the NHL, outnumbered the number of American and European players, even though the country only has six franchises out of thirty within its boundaries. Among the very best players to date are: * Wayne Gretzky * Mario Lemieux * Maurice Richard * Bobby Orr * Patrick Roy * Gordie Howe * Bobby Hull * Sidney Crosby National Championships *Alexander Cup Major Senior *Allan Cup Senior *Edinburgh Trophy Minor Professional *Hardy Cup Intermediate *Memorial Cup Major Junior *Royal Bank Cup Tier II Junior "A" *Stanley Cup Major Professional *University Cup Universities Largest Cities Population of Metropolitan Areas (2006) :1 Toronto 5,113,149 :2 Montreal 3,635,571 :3 Vancouver 2,116,581 :4 Ottawa 1,130,761 :5 Calgary 1,079,310 :6 Edmonton 1.034,945 :7 Quebec City 715,515 :8 Winnipeg 694,668 :9 Hamilton 692,911 :10 London 457,720 National Teams *Canada men's national junior ice hockey team *Canada men's national ice hockey team *Canada women's national ice hockey team *Canada women's national U-18 ice hockey team *Canada men's national U-18 ice hockey team See also * National Hockey League * Hockey Canada Category:Hockey Countries Category:Ice hockey in Canada Category:Countries